


Clockwork Garden

by disco_agidyne



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona Series
Genre: Crushes, Fluff, M/M, protagshipping week, tags updated as fic progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 14:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6379024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disco_agidyne/pseuds/disco_agidyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A flower grown in the moonlight enters the labyrinth and meets the sun.</p><p>Written for Protagshipping Week on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clockwork Garden

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: _Magician [Power, Action, Awareness, Application, Resourcefulness] // Alexithymia (noun) – the inability to express your feelings_
> 
> Originally posted [here](http://disco-agidyne.tumblr.com/post/141449166863/for-protagshipping-week-i-originally-intended-to).

The Queen of Hearts fell hard enough to shake the entire labyrinth, but it was the other leader’s face that made Minato’s knees weak.

“You really saved us back there,” he said, extending his hand. He had a strong voice, and a nice smile, and Minato had to force himself to look away from the other boy’s mouth. He played it off like he was checking the clock on the wall and not desperately looking for a distraction.

“Yeah,” Minato said back. He took the hand and briefly shook it, trying not to think about how sweaty his hands were after being stuffed in his pockets the whole way back from the Wonderland exhibit.

“Name’s Yu,” the boy said, letting his arm drop back to his side. His other hand was resting on his hip.

“Minato.”

“Looks like we’ll be working together from now on,” Yu said with a small, yet sunny smile, practically beaming at the thought of having new teammates. Something about Yu was excessively bright. Too bright. Minato felt like he was looking into the sun, squinting at his fellow leader. Vice leader, to be exact. For some reason the top leadership position had been assigned to Minato, just like it had with SEES. He’d accepted it with a shrug, but after seeing how Yu handled his own team, Minato was starting to wonder why the responsibility had been shifted back to him again. He’d kind of hoped he’d be able to leave the hassle to someone else for once. Minato wasn’t about to deal with the even bigger hassle that would be reassembling everyone and making a case to them to reconsider leadership roles. If nothing else it meant people trusted him, and that had to be worth something. Probably. Either that, or the pheromone coffee at his part-time gig wasn’t as big a scam as he assumed it to be.

Anyway, the rays from Yu’s smile weren’t getting any dimmer and it didn’t take Minato long to give up squinting and turn away again.

“Guess so,” Minato replied, letting his hands slide back into his pockets as the two of them made their way past the cultural festival’s food vendors. Yu’s smile faltered for a moment, but he recovered quickly as he reached into his own pocket and pulled out a small notebook.

“I’ve been mapping the labyrinth for my team. Mitsuru said you were doing something similar?”

“Yeah.”

There was a long pause that lasted until Minato left Yu’s side to purchase a croquette and Yu realized Minato wasn’t going to volunteer any more information regarding his own map. Yu blinked, taken aback by the lack of a response that he’d gotten. He waited patiently, flipping through the pages of his own detailed maps of Wonderland until Minato returned with his croquette already half-eaten despite the fact the trip back couldn’t have been more than five steps.

“Hungry, huh?”

Minato grunted in affirmation, not bothering to lower the food from his mouth for a proper answer. Though it was true that he was hungry after the battle, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate that the food gave him an excuse not to talk.

“Uh...” Yu’s thoughts stalled for a second, letting a shard of disappointment make its way through his upbeat façade. “Maybe we could compare our maps and discuss—”

Without even turning to face Yu, Minato shoved a second croquette into his face, holding it there until his bewildered vice leader regained enough composure to take it from his hand. Yu held the gift with a loose grip, as though he was afraid of crushing it if he pressed too hard. He looked it over, then turned to Minato, then back to the croquette, then back to Minato, who was hoping Yu didn’t notice the descent his skin had made from cherry blossom to cherry in that short period between glances.

“For me?”

Minato grunted again, eyes locked on the path worn in the old wood floor in front of them. Slowly, the cloud of confusion over Yu’s head parted to reveal the sunshine again. It was a softer light than before, warm and gentle; a light that Minato could easily stare at all day long, much as he was then, too taken by the other boy’s smile to remember to avert his gaze.

“Thanks,” Yu said, his face rosy and voice just low enough that only Minato could hear it. He put the notebook away and focused on his food, allowing the two of them to set business aside for the time being.

**Author's Note:**

> I'M BACK.  
> Unfortunately due to irl obligations, I was unable to write as much of this as I wanted, but I plan to finish this fic with all of the [provided prompts](http://protagshippingweek.tumblr.com/prompts) eventually.
> 
> It's about time I write a protagshipping fic anyway, right?


End file.
